


No More Secrets

by Jekkah



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Angst, Episode Related, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-04
Updated: 2014-03-04
Packaged: 2018-01-14 12:36:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1266835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jekkah/pseuds/Jekkah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a short coda to S09E16's "Gabby" in which JJ and Hotch have a conversation about the last few weeks</p>
            </blockquote>





	No More Secrets

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: Just a little coda that came to me after watching “Gabby”.

Hotch shook the hand of the police chief before walking away. He took a look around the station one last time only to find JJ, staring intently into one of the interview rooms, her head slightly bent. Quietly, he walked up behind her.

“I thought you went back to the hotel with the others,” he murmured in her ear.

JJ jumped as his breathe washed over her. “I was going to, but...”

Hotch put his hand on her shoulder. “But you're finding it hard to leave without knowing what's going to happen to them.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. She nodded towards the kids in the room, playing quietly with the social worker brought in. “I mean, I know that they're going into foster care, but neither one of us are strangers to all the things that could go wrong there.”

“We do.” Hotch moved so that he stood directly behind her, standing close enough that their body heat mingled. “That's why I asked to be kept informed of every step of their lives until they find an adoptive family. I'm not going to abandon these kids.”

JJ leaned against him. “You're a good a man, Aaron Hotchner.” She sighed as he laid his hands lightly on her hips. “I just keep thinking how scared they must have been, being snatched repeatedly from their lives, not knowing where they were going or if the people they were going to would be safe.”

Hotch's heart sped up. Even weeks later, he still awoke with nightmares of her kidnapping. Refusing to care who saw them, Hotch wrapped his arms fully around her. “You're safe. I won't let anyone take you ever again.”

“I know,” she whispered. JJ wiped a tear from her eye before placing her hands securely over his. She closed her eyes. “Do you ever... think... about the baby?”

“All,” he choked, “all the time, but especially since...”

JJ gave off a shuddering huff. “You'll never be able to face it if you don't call say it.”

Burying his face in her neck to get control of his emotions, Hotch shook his head. “I don't want to face it. I don't want to think about how I wasn't the one to discover that you were missing because you don't come home to me, but to him. I don't want to think about how I had to maintain a professional distance when all I wanted to do was breakdown. I don't want to think about how my arms itched to hold when you were rescued or how much it killed me to let you go home with him. I don't want to think about how I had to stand there and be sympathetic as he grieved the loss of a baby that was never his to begin with. I don't want to face, JJ, because I don't want to face the fact that I could have lost you.”

“Hotch,” she sobbed before turning in his arm. She grabbed his face and kissed him, passionately, pouring a thousand apologies into it. “I'm sorry. I don't know how to get out. There's Henry and Will and Jack and Beth and-”

“I know,” he emphasized, his voice full of regret and understanding. “We both agreed to this and we both know why, even if it means lying about 'no more secrets'.”

JJ gave him a brief smile. She placed a soft kiss on his lips before stepping out of his arms. She turned back to look into the room, sniffing. “You'll let me know how everything turns out for the kids, right?”

Hotch flexed his hands, wanting desperately to reach out to her again, but knowing he shouldn't. “Of course.”

She glanced over her shoulder and gave him a quick nod. “I'll see at the hotel.”

“See you there.”

THE END


End file.
